I am new to asp.net mvc world. So I have a question
I have already developed a web app using Asp.net MVC (also deployed on production).
Currently I am working on mobile apps. For this I need web services (restful).
For Restful web services do I have to make a new project (within existing solution) or can I incorporate Restful webservices into my existing (Asp.net MVC) project ? (I prefer 2nd option if possible)
If I have to make new project for Web Api, then how will I deploy both projects on production knowing that Web Api project is dependent on Asp.net-MVC project ?
One thing you need to understand first is whether it's a web service,wcf service or a Web API the only thing you need is to get a json/xml output which you can use in your mobile app.
Let say you have and asp.net mvc application which has some action methods, but you might be returning a View or PartialView which is not you want for a mobile app to parse. So you need to create an action method which returns JsonResult.
If you want to use all the RESTFul verbs like POST,PUT,GET,DELETE you can add another controller which inherits from APIController and write methods there, but either ways output is same.
So it's up to you what to do and how to proceed, only thing is with an APIController you will have some more verbs and code ahve some special returns like "Ok" e.t.c
I have a .NET MVC web app and a Windows Service running on the same machine. Both projects use the same database through a different Data Access Layer project.
I need the Windows Service to perform some actions on the database, and i know there are different options, just want to know which is the correct:
1.- Calling an Action on the .NET MVC web app that also performs the same actions needed by the Windows Service. To do so i would call the Action with a standard "HttpWebRequest" call.
2.- Creating a Web API controller on the .NET MVC web app and calling it from the Windows Service using the WebApi.Client library.
3.- Creating a new WCF project to create a new service and calling it from the Windows Service.
I'm not familiar with any of the options above, so please feel free to post the correct way to do it.
How about creating a class library with the code you want to run and use it in both the web app and the service? I call that option 4.
How to create a restful service and a web form application under the same solution? I want to use the same port number for both of them, something like a sub folder for one application. I have created restful using visual studio 2012 wcf and also I've created another project for calling the web service. But I feel that there are two separate application and difficult to maintain.
You can use ASP.NET Web API: http://www.asp.net/web-api. But there will be still small difficulty with combining web forms and MVC.
I'm just starting a project where I would like to use Kendo UI (based on jquery) with C#. A few weeks ago I was successful in handling requests using Web Services (asmx), was pleased with the results and performance, and was able to create forms quickly.
Since this is a new project, I thought I could look into different concepts such as MVC and WebApi. I found MVC to be the most complicaded so I went for WebApi and started playing with controllers and requests. So far what I'm finding (don't judge me, I'm new to these new concepts), is that Web Service seems to be simpler and more flexible.
So I guess what I'm looking for is... what are the main advantages of using MVC vs WebApi and even vs Web Services. Are there any downsides to Web Services? Would it be a bad practice to have my data layer controlled by Entity Framework, all models defined, and my requests handled by Web Services?
Any clarifications are welcome. Thank you.
In a broader sense, Web API is used to create Web Services ! It uses HTTP as its standard for creating services (instead of SOAP like in asmx) as its more open and any type of client like a mobile app, desktop app, web app etc will understand HTTP protocol. Another advantage is that u can easily use JavaScript/jQuery to communicate with your Web API. With SOAP web services, its a nightmare!
Kendo UI and Web API is a great combination. We have recently created a mobile iPad app using this combination and it worked like a charm. We also used Entity Framework with oracle as back end DB and it never gave any issues.
Webservices are nice if you have the need for it. A need as in needing that logic/data in more than one different type of application (such as web, and a mobile app, and a desktop app). (Or if you want to sell the service you're providing)
Using a webservice for ONLY a website which you don't except to expand to other things is complete overkill.
Furthermore, the MVC framework and the Web Api framework are pretty similar except web api is used exclusively for webservices. Coding in both of them will be the difference between white bread and wheat bread.
After searching the entire day about what I should use, I'm not sure what option would be best for my needs so I hope someone with more experience could help me out.
I have a winforms application (c#) and a ASP.NET MVC 4 web application (c#).
I wish to connect these, the goal is to send and receive data from the database which I use in the MVC 4 project, but from within the windows forms application. The data I send from the windows forms application to the database, is then used by the MVC 4 web application.
I am entirely new to web services / Web Api's so I can't really decide what option would be best. Any help would be much appreciated..
If you already created MVC4 project then you can add actions to any controller
and return JSON data like below :
public JsonResult GetCategoryList()
{
var list = //return list
return Json(list, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
or you can create new project of MVC4 and select WEBAPI template . It will create webapi project for you .It will create with example .so it will easy for to create webapi.In webapi it return data automatically convert to xml and json as per request
The WCF Web API abstractions map to ASP.NET Web API roughly as follows
WCF Web AP -> ASP.NET Web API
Service -> Web API controller
Operation -> Action
Service contract -> Not applicable
Endpoint -> Not applicable
URI templates -> ASP.NET Routing
Message handlers -> Same
Formatters -> Same
Operation handlers -> Filters, model binders
Other Links
If you have an MVC 4 App already, it would be better to use Web API (RESTful service)
I assume you have some knowledge in building REST API (understanding of POST, PUT, UPDATE stuff)
It is simple in configuration and usage. All what you need actually is to create a new controller like:
class MyApiController: ApiController {
public Post(SomeClass item) {
....connect to db and do whatever you need with the data
}
}
You'll also should configure routing for Api.
And then in your winForms app you can simply use HttpClient class to perform api call.
HttpClient aClient = new HttpClient();
// Uri is where we are posting to:
Uri theUri = new Uri("https://mysite.com/api/MyApi");
// use the Http client to POST some content ( ‘theContent’ not yet defined).
aClient.PostAsync(theUri, new SomeClass());
Take a look at some implementation details right here:
Web Api Getting Started
Get started with WCF is not so easy as with Web API.
Given the tags you've used, my guess is that you're deciding between SOAP Web Services and WCF. Given these two, I say to go WCF. SOAP web services (as implemented in Visual Studio) are the older technology; still serviceable, but WCF can do everything an older SOAP service can do (including look exactly like a SOAP service) and more.
If you have a web service that connects your web server to your database server (these two things should be on different machines; your web server is exposed to the world by necessity, while your DB server should be locked down like Fort Knox), I see no reason why you shouldn't use that same service as-is for an internal WinForms application (using a LAN/VPN to access the service layer on the DB server). For a WinForms application that must access the data over the Internet, I would recommend reimplementing the service as a WCF service supporting secure encrypted data transfer. You can also set up the service endpoint to only accept HTTPS connections, and thus simply run your existing service through SSL/TLS.
What you choose will primarily depend on how much time-resources you can commit to resolving the problem; moving to HTTPS is a fast fix requiring little if any code changes, while reimplementing in WCF will take more time but will allow additional security measures beyond a simple secure tunnel.
Or something lightweight like Nancy: http://nancyfx.org/
We had some issues with MVC4 WebApi stuff and ended up using ServiceStack on the server side JavaScript/AJAX for web clients and RestSharp for thick clients.
One of our specific issues was the inability to auto generate documentation, significant performance differences, and better support for unit/integration testing.
Rather than advocate specifically WCF, I'd recommend WCF Data Services or OData, with the stipulation that you'll need to secure it. If you go for pure WCF, you'll see that you'll end up creating a lot of code to handle retrieving the info from a database, and then sending that information right back out to your clients. It doesn't sound that bad, at first, but after about 30 entities in a database, you'll quickly grow tired of a pure WCF solution.
OData is great, it uses Entity Framework, and it quickly opens data manipulation for an existing database or one you are going to make. It will save you a ton of development time, if you can make your service secure. The format of the data response is flexible. There are plenty of client libraries ported for other programming languages as well.
The steps for securing a service are pretty simple. Always deploy to https. Any login or registration methods , need to be post methods, that return a token (Encrypted value), or a unique secret that can be encrypted and sent back for any subsequent requests. It's better to use the token, and have an expiration on the token.. because otherwise both your service and your app whether mobile or desktop, need to have a shared encryption / decryption method.